Sacrifice: The First Book of the Fey (68 page)

He watched her make her slow way down the corridor. She glanced toward the kitchens once but did not enter them. He leaned against the cold stone wall and took a deep breath as she disappeared into the darkness. Then he closed his eyes, feeling the exhaustion carry him.

The Fey had been in the palace. Somehow they had overtaken the master of the hall and Nicholas’s favorite groom. Maybe some of the people he had spoken to this evening were taken by the Fey. He would have to tell his father. And he would need the new holy water immediately. All of the palace staff would need to be tested. All of them. Even the lovely Charissa.

And he would have to warn the Rocaan even more. Somehow the bones and blood led to the Fey’s ability to make a man do their bidding. That meant there were two spies in the Tabernacle. They might try to kill the Rocaan.

Suddenly he opened his eyes, exhaustion forgotten. If he had spies in the Tabernacle, he would assign them to learn the secret of holy water.

No sleep for him tonight. He needed to speak to his father, then get another horse out of the stable and return to the Tabernacle. He didn’t trust this message to anyone but himself.

FIFTY-SEVEN

When Jewel emerged from her room early the next morning, she was alone in the cabin. But the fire burned brightly in the hearth, and steam rose from one of the iron pots. At least there would be tea, even though their supply was getting terribly low. She suspected that she and Rugar had the last remaining tins.

She ladled the water into her mug. Her father had left a tea strainer out for her; they had been sharing strainers since it became clear they would be trapped on Blue Isle for a long time.

He also left some fresh bread on the table. She carved a slice. He had probably had some business with the Domestics. Lately he had been leaving early to supervise some of their work. He was becoming worried that the food supply would dwindle, and anything they could do to increase the yield would help them all.

A knock on the door startled her. She swallowed, set the bread back on the plate, and called, “Who is it?”

“Caseo.”

She took a deep breath. He was not the man she wanted to see before she had finished her breakfast, but she doubted she had a choice. “Just a moment.”

Before she got up, she took another large bite of bread, then wiped off her mouth. She unlatched the door.

Caseo didn’t wait for her to ask him in. He ducked under the threshold and stepped inside. “Late breakfast?”

She was in no mood to be civil. “I’d offer you tea, but I would worry that you were going to stay if I did.”

“Nothing should stop a Fey from being a good host,” he said, eyeing her cup.

“Except an unwanted guest.” She returned to her chair, slid her cup closer, and took another bite of bread. She chewed it slowly and swallowed before speaking again. “Did you come for me or my father?”

“You,” Caseo said.

“Well,” she said, “I can tell you already that the poison will probably kill me, and that no, I will not participate in your experiments. So thank you very much for considering me, and be sure to close the door on your way out.”

“When and if you become Black Queen,” Caseo said slowly, “I would hope that you have more patience with your subjects than you display with me.”

Jewel sighed. “I am not Black Queen yet, and I find you difficult at best, Caseo. Insulting me is not the way to work with me.”

He sighed, clearly impatient with the enforced politeness. “The prisoners,” he said. “I want to use them. I assume you’re done with them.”

So he was going to be direct. Perhaps that was best. “I spoke to them only yesterday.”

“And had a Healer still one of their tongues. Nice idea, but you can’t interrogate a man who can’t speak.”

“No,” she said, standing so that she met his gaze. “But you can scare his companions into talking.”

“So you are done,” he said.

“I’ve only begun with them.” She leaned against the table. “But tell me what you plan to use them for, and I will
consider your request.”

“You know what I want them for. I need to figure out this poison.”

She crossed her arms. “I’ve already asked them about it. They know nothing.”

“Well, perhaps you didn’t ask them properly,” he said.

She stared at him. Just because he was older didn’t mean that he could speak to her that way. “I don’t have to defend myself to you, Caseo. I asked the prisoners, they said they didn’t know, and I was satisfied with their answers. Now, you be satisfied with mine.”

He stared at her for a moment, then crossed his arms as well. “I would really have preferred to talk with your father.”

Jewel shrugged. “Then find him. It will do you no good. I’m in charge of the prisoners.”

Caseo leaned toward her, using his height as a weapon. He placed his face inches from hers. “You are preventing us from discovering the one thing that could save us.”

She didn’t move. “I am doing nothing of the sort. I am discovering the information in my own way. And if you were so worried about finding the answers, you would be in your own cabin right now, working.”

“I have worked!” The words exploded from him with such force that she felt the puffs of air from his breath. “I have worked for months!”

“And you’re finding nothing?” she asked the question softly.

“Nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing except what you already know—that it can be diluted, the effects slowed or reduced, with real water. That is all we have learned. All. In months of intensive work.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “So you see why we have to do this. You see why we need those prisoners. We have little hope of finding the answer on our own.”

She stepped away from his grip. “I doubt that, Caseo. I have full confidence in your abilities. You are tired, that’s all.”

“Why is it that everyone questions me?” He straightened to his full height.

“I am not questioning you,” Jewel said slowly. “I am saying that I believe in you.”

“But you will not work with me.”

She suppressed a sigh. Her father had been right when he called Caseo temperamental. “All right,” she said, using her softest, most reasonable voice. “Tell me what you will use the prisoners for.”

“Experiments,” he said. “First to see if the water affects them. Then to learn if they know more than they told you. Finally to discover if we can recreate the effect on Islanders.”

She didn’t move, but in her mind’s eye she saw Adrian’s face and the caring look he had shot at Luke. Her promise that if Adrian cooperated, his son would go free. She didn’t want to see Adrian mangled and melted beyond recognition. But she also didn’t want to spend the rest of her life in the Shadowlands.

“How would you do that?” she asked.

“We create spells. We do not dissect them. We would work on what we do best, creating spells.” He spoke with such enthusiasm, she almost thought the idea his until she realized he had not credited it. Apparently one of the other Warders had pushed him in this direction and he believed the Warder to be right.

“So anything could happen to these men.”

“Yes,” Caseo said.

She nodded and pushed away from the table. He had a point. The Fey had tortured prisoners before. She had helped late in the Nye campaign by bringing the prisoners to the commanders herself. She had seen things at Luke’s age that he couldn’t even imagine. Still, she didn’t feel right throwing the prisoners to Caseo.

“I am not done with them,” she said. “When I am, they will be yours. Until then work with the Red Caps on obtaining some fresh skin from the bodies outside. See if that will help you.”

“We already have skin,” Caseo snapped. “We need those prisoners. You’re delaying the inevitable by being stupid—”

“And you are making me angry,” Jewel said. “I do what I believe best for this troop, and only my father will overrule me. Do you understand that, Caseo?”

He crossed his arms and leaned back, peering down at her with that frightening hooded gaze.

“Do you understand?” she asked. “Because if you don’t, I am sure my father would be all too happy to explain it to you.”

“You are an Infantry soldier. You have no jurisdiction over me,” Caseo said.

“I am the Black King’s granddaughter. I own your very life,” Jewel said. “Don’t tempt me to take it.”

“You wouldn’t,” Caseo said. “I am the best Spell Warder you have.”

“If you were,” Jewel said with a smile, “you would have thought of this idea, instead of one of your other Warders. You are no longer the best, Caseo. You let a lucky, magickless people get the best of you. Aren’t you ashamed of that?”

“I have nothing to be ashamed of. It was your father that brought us here. It was his failure of Vision that trapped us here, not mine.”

She was so tired of hearing that, so tired of thinking it herself. “If you were able to do your job, we would have controlled this Isle long ago. But you can’t beat a simple spell that most of the Islanders don’t even realize is magick.”

Caseo took a step toward her. “Don’t shift the blame onto me, girl,” he said. “Do you know why we moved Shadowlands? Because your father’s Vision is breaking down. He should have been able to expand the first Shadowlands with no trouble at all. Instead, his abilities failed him. Magick always fails first on water.”

“If you knew that, then why trust his Visions?” Jewel asked. “You came with us, after all.”

“He was once the best Visionary of us all. But sometimes Vision decays, Jewel. Especially when it is used to See the same things over and over.” Caseo’s face had turned dark. His brows leveled over his eyes, making him seem angrier than he was.

“If what you say is true, then you have still failed,” Jewel snapped. She was shaking. No one had quite maligned her father like this. “Warders are supposed to bring these concerns to the Black King, and in his absence or if he is the one with the problem, they are supposed to bring it to the Shaman. Have you talked with her?”

“I have been a bit busy,” Caseo said. He stood to his full height.

“So you haven’t.” Jewel pushed off the table. “Yet you threaten me with my father’s inability to do things. You try to fob off your mistakes on someone else, and you demand that I give you prisoners even though you won’t say what you’ll do with them. I have no reason to help you, Caseo.”

“Except to help yourself,” he said.

“I see no evidence that helping you will help any of us. And if I catch you spreading those lies about my father without going through the proper channels, then I will make sure you are on the next small boat heading for the Stone Guardians. Then we will see what kind of stuff you are made of.”

“You have no right to threaten me, girl.”

Jewel tilted her head back at him. “I have every right,” she said. “I am your better and always will be, even if we stay on Blue Isle forever. It would serve you well to remember that.”

“And it would serve you well to remember that without Warders, you would have no idea how to use your powers at all.” Caseo flung open the door. Gray mist spilled in. The Weather Sprites must have been attempting to experiment with rain again. “You are a naive child, Jewel. Look around you. Fey do not make these kinds of mistakes unless their magick is dying. We are trapped by your father’s unwillingness to admit that he is losing his Vision.”